Sunday, October 23, 2011

Planar Chaos - Chapter 15

Teferi walks up to an Urborg encampment and requests an audience with their Lord. Lord Windgrace enters him mind and reminds Teferi that he was told that his help is not wanted. But the persistent and smug Teferi just won't let matters drop, so Windgrace transports him deep within the Stronghold to talk to him face to face.

Green fire flared from Windgrace's eyes. "You vex me, Tolarian. I do not believe you are as weak as you pretend, so I cannot simply ignore you. I do believe you know more and intend to do more than you are willing to say, so I cannot simply kill you. Yet neither will I simply let you run loose to continue your intrusive tamping and your ham-handed attempts to influence events. So I put it to you: What other course is open to me?"

Teferi repeats that he and Freyalise must destroy the Rifts, and they must do it in the same way that he himself did with Shiv. He insists that Windgrace needs his knowledge and that his way is the only way. He just wants to help. Windgrace refuses to listen. There are too many issues at hand that require his immediate attention that don't require him to feed himself to the rift.

He says to Teferi that if he wants to do something, he'll do it down from down here. He'll have all the time he wants to study the rift from within the Stronghold and if he should show enough power to attract the attentions of the Weaver King he can handle that problem as well. Lord Windgrace flies up through the top of the hollow mountain.

Teferi is surprised at this turn of events, and finds himself left behind with no way to escape. After noticing some strange helmeted figure appear in the corner of his eye and then disappear again, Teferi knows there isn't much more for him to do besides try to recall the tides of his home, and chant.

...The Urborg Swamp...

Jodah is sufficiently impressed with Venser's machine. Venser tells him he needs at least a minute to get a lock on the signal beacon and then he'll be able to follow. Jodah jumps down into his transportation tunnel.

Venser sees the signal from his beacon and waits for the calculations to complete. Halfway through the process the signal stops. This isn't good. He doesn't have enough data. There's no telling where he'd reappear unless Jodah gets the beacon working again. Venser is on the brink of breaking his promise to Lord Windgrace, a promise to protect his homeland so he can go help his friends, and now that choice is taken away from him.

Then the Weaver King's talks to him once more and repeats the same mantra as before. He tells Venser that he should stop what he's doing. That he should rest.

Venser is tired of this. During this moment of guilt the Weaver King chooses to tempt him with his innermost instincts to just hide and let hope his problems pass him by. He isn't going to stand for it this time. Venser activates his machine.

"I will not rest," Venser said, "until my work is done." Resolute and full of purpose, Venser flipped the last switch. The ambulator shuddered and faded into a curtain of golden yellow sparks.

The marsh was quiet for a moment or two. Then a high, manic giggle broke the silence and the Weaver King said, Well, I guess you showed me.

* * *

Oh Teferi

I was a little unsure about the return of the old Teferi, but I'm really enjoying this now. Now that he's not in control of everything, everyone keeps on trying to ignore him but his persistence proves too strong. Despite his somewhat unlikeable personality, that pretty admirable. I wouldn't want someone like that bothering me in real life, but reading about someone with such a strong conviction to his cause, a cause that is worthy of pursuing, isn't all that bad.